To view the imagery simply go to Planet Explorer Beta. You can see monthly global base maps without even logging in. If you sign up for a free account, you can then see high resolution base maps and daily imagery within the US. For the rest of the globe the free account only provides access to low resolution monthly base maps. In addition, the free account gives you access to the Open California dataset, which allows you to download imagery for California two weeks after capture. The Open California data is shared with a fairly liberal licence.

Keep in mind that most of the imagery is relatively low resolution at 2-5m per pixel. Terra Bella imagery is sub-metre per pixel, but still not as good as other commercial suppliers such as DigitalGlobe and nothing like as good as aerial imagery. Nevertheless, the imagery is sufficient for seeing large scale phenomenon such as flooding (as seen in the YouTube video above), wildfire, tornadoes (see below), landslides etc.

About Timothy Whitehead

Timothy has been using Google Earth since 2004 when it was still called Keyhole before it was renamed Google Earth in 2005 and has been a huge fan ever since. He is a programmer working for Red Wing Aerobatx and lives in Cape Town, South Africa.

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